“The body is often described in art in terms of its objecthood, but as a cultural site linking many disciplines and branches of thought it might be imagined as protean territory that is never ‘done’ and cannot be mapped in a singular fashion. In the connective tissue between the humanities and the sciences are innumerable individual human stories, feeding different forms of study and, down the line, re-informing collective experience. It’s the gristly interstices between the knowledge of what we are (complex biological machines, thinkers, workers, creators, friends, lovers, baby makers) and the experiences that shape who we are, which appear of particular interest to Sarah Gillham, Mindy Lee, Susan Sluglett and Paul Westcombe.” Rebecca Geldard

The exhibition Rumpy Bees & Pumpy Blooms focuses on sexuality and gender. Generations and locations shape images of sexuality. Sexuality as the essence of human life, points far beyond the private sphere. Sexuality impacts both on our personal lives and politics. Each and every one of us needs a position in regard to questions of gender, sexual identity, order, censorship, freedom and power, and to renegotiate these positions over the course of our lives.

Art allows us to portray realities of life and subjective practices, to give space to fantasies and to bring them into reality. The works presented in the group exhibition combine different ideas of sexual meaning into a field of new emotional, political and historical angles.

MINDY LEE & J.A.L.-B.

Lee’s series of double-sided paintings, made for this exhibition, are created on clothing once worn by the artist and her son. Discarded clothes are rendered functionless through unpicking and re-assembling and contain a memory and history of the bodies’ activity within them, through ageing, stretching, staining and daily wear and tear. The body is further traced through the play-paint games, which capture J.A.L.-B.’s external bodily prints and gestures. His gestures are fetishized, reclaimed, mimicked and cut into, blurring the boundaries between his touch and Lee’s. J.A.L.-B.’s marks transform and inform Lee’s imagery, which recaptures intimate moments of daily domestic life. Lee also references bones across the series. They appear as x-ray, pattern, costume, prop and toy, bringing a hammer horror humour into play and creating a place between autobiography and mythology.

* J.A.L.-B. is Mindy Lee’s 3 yr old son.

A publication accompanies this exhibition with text from Michael Szpakowski

This peer mentoring group established by Alicia Tsigarides brings together a group of women artists to examine the representation of femininity. They will identify how the body emerges in humorous, erotic or grotesque ways within their practices. Their contrasting approaches range from the Kitsch and provocative to the intimate and opulent. Some traverse gently between these extremes. Discussion will explore the boundaries between the sexual and the romantic, the tasteful and the vulgar. The role of the artist’s biography, including the influence of cultural backgrounds, life experiences and popular culture, will be considered. Exploring how the female body is presented throughout art history, they will identify established feminist arguments and current strategies used to define or disrupt ideas of gender. Examining the relationship between gender and materials, the group will discuss the importance of materiality and process in their work. The primary aim is to expand these ideas, whilst giving feedback on each other’s work. Bringing together these playful yet critical practices generates a conversation that feels relevant and needed in the current climate.

These artists work with memories, borrowing objects because they spark with history, memories, and meaning. The power of observation practiced by these eleven artists link decay with giving life, transform pain into desire, coax the intangible from the tangible, locate the virtual in a space of its own, and continually subvert expectation.

In Infancy reveals the beginnings of two autobiographical projects initiated by artists Sarah Gillham and Mindy Lee shortly before and since the birth of their sons. This work in progress shows an evolving narrative growing out of intimate moments of daily domestic life. These private moments submerged within infancy disconnect from a sentimental nostalgia to transform routine, ritual and fetishisation into a mythology of the bodies’ inner and outer states. These bodies of work also echo and mirror the interconnectedness of life and death.

I am showing 3 blue paintings in once in a blue moon as the exhibition tours to Frankfurt

For its third annual open call exhibition, things we didn’t have before, Pump House Gallery transforms into a cabinet of curiosities. Each of the gallery’s floors serve as different compartments, a treasure trove of wondrous artworks and objects that await discovery.

Blue appears to be the world’s most popular colour according to surveys. Blue is associated with trust, serenity and union. In art and popular culture many examples immediately spring to mind such as: Picasso’s “blue period”, Yves Klein’s blue monochromes and multinational blue branding used by Facebook, IKEA and Nivea etc.

The title “Once in a Blue Moon” refers to an English saying meaning a rarely occurring event. A blue moon, a full moon occurring twice in a calendar month, only arises every 2,4 years. Picking up on the rare occasion as leitmotif the curators invite the public to submit blue coloured everyday objects building a bazar in all shades of blue. Both art works and everyday objects will be on display and for sale in the gallery.

WW Gallery ‘In this, the fourth year of the SOLO award, the selection panel studied some 2500 images and multimedia works, from around 500 artists. We want to thank all the artists for submitting their work and make a special mention of those artists shortlisted for the award’

Amanda Couch and Andrew Hladky and Mindy Lee presented ‘On Innards’ at Body Horror 2, an international interdisciplinary conference in Athens, from 1-3 November 2013. It is now represented in three chapters in the e-book volume, ‘Body Horror and Shapeshifting’,

About Body Horror and Shapeshifting: A Multidisciplinary Exploration, 2014.
The body is unveiled, not as a terra incognita, but as terra to be rediscovered. The authors – whose diverse origins echo the multiple media used to convey their ideas – establish a link between bodily metamorphosis and psychological fissures. The body is a locus of paradoxes: deformed, infected, monstrosised or negated but at the same time fascinating, intimate or sensual. Here, readers will open the door of disruption. They will explore the flesh or the inner processes of the body, the idea of its degeneration, even its perception as a gaping wound. The authors in this volume question the very notion of identity as they embark on a journey to reflect on the self. Life itself is a shapeshifting dance we unknowingly join in its myriad of colours and moves.

In part two: ‘A Sensory Voyage of the Body’, the three chapters of ‘On Innards’ are:
a) ‘Reflection on Digestion: The Mouth’ by Amanda Couch;
b) ‘On Innards: Presentation of Artwork’ by Amanda Couch, Andrew Hladky and Mindy Lee;
c) ‘On Innards: A Three-Way Conversation’ by Amanda Couch, Andrew Hladky and Mindy Lee.

On Innards is a multidisciplinary project developed by artists Amanda Couch, Andrew Hladky and Mindy Lee, that explores the changing conceptualisations of guts and digestion, their impact on the creative process and the role they play in constructing and destabilising our sense of self.

The project will involve an exhibition at Blyth Gallery, Imperial College, from 8 October until 7 November 2014, with an opening reception on 7 October 2014 from 6 until 8.30pm. To accompany the exhibition there will be a daylong multidisciplinary event at Blyth Gallery and Kensington & Chelsea Central Library on 11 October 2014 from 10am until 5pm.
On Innards | Exhibition | 8 October – 7 November 2014

The exhibition at Blyth Gallery will consist of artwork by Hladky, Lee and Couch exploring intestines, entrails, and the digestive process as material, image, and metaphor. They will show paintings, objects and prints that move between representation and realism, making reference to Gaston Bachelard’s claim that digestion ‘is the origin of the strongest kind of realism’. Central to the work is the desire to avoid the flattening effects of representation and encourage more embodied ways for people to encounter artwork. We hope to remind our audience of their physical presence in relation to images and language, as well as showing the inner workings of the image and text.

Cutting across media, Amanda Couch’s work uses the processes and lived experience of her own body as material and metaphor to create images and objects that are both visceral and narrative. Andrew Hladky is interested in the inner bodily processes of his paintings, revealing the conflict between their surface illusion and the lumpen material that forms them. Mindy Lee’s plated paintings are served as a cannibalistic smorgasbord of revived images regurgitated from historical painting.
On Innards | Event | 11 October 2014

Accompanying the exhibition Lee, Couch and Hladky will lead a participatory and experiential day-long event exploring multi-disciplinary perspectives on digestion, innards and the interior body. It will bring together researchers and practitioners from the fields of gastroenterology, cultural theory, art history, yoga, performance and fine art and the medical humanities, and participants to share knowledge and experiences. The event is free and open to all.

Recent medical research re-imagines the digestive system as a sensory organ and second brain, the site of our most direct and complex physical exchange with the external world. It has a profound effect on our mood and ability to function, but its reasoning remains largely inaccessible to our awareness. The idea that our guts lurk behind the scenes exerting a decisive influence on our actions is an unsettling one, challenging modern cerebro-centred images of selfhood and agency. This event will highlight some of the ways different imaginings of the gut can clash with customary ways of viewing our bodies and ourselves.
On Innards / Event is free, open to all and on a first come, first serve basis. Tickets should be booked in advance via Eventbrite, http://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/on-innards-event-tickets-12834078073
On Innards is generously supported by University for the Creative Arts, Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, Imperial College and is a part of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea Celebration of Science 2014.